In the tobacco industry, a number of stacks of blanks are arranged on a pallet in a number of superimposed layers, each of which is separated from each adjacent layer by a separating member, normally a sheet of cardboard or similar, and the stacks in each layer are picked up successively by a pickup member comprising an articulated fork, a free end of which is pressed down, facing the stack to be picked up, on the underlying separating member to deform the separating member slightly downwards. The free end of the fork, still pressing down on the separating member, is then fed towards the stack to be picked up, so as to insert the fork underneath the stack. In the course of the above operations, the fork is rotated, about an axis parallel to the plane of the separating member, between an initial-contact position in which the fork slopes downwards towards the separating member, and a pickup position in which the fork is substantially parallel to the separating member.
The above pickup method is normally efficient and accurate, and only poses problems when the speed of the fork exceeds a given threshold, over and above which the fork tends to crumple and/or pierce the separating member.